Water cycle

This past week, the kids accepted a challenge from me: they had to design a water cycle system, that could reasonably be built in the school with easily attained materials, that would include the following elements: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration (water absorbing into the ground, or dirt), and runoff. Within a few minutes, the class had begun to put together a design for a system involving a boiling pot of water, some plastic tubing, and a container of dirt with a filter beneath it... On Friday morning, we built it in the kitchen. Alas—the evaporation worked, and we saw some condensation in the tubing, as well—but our water never quite made it all the way through the tubes to the precipitation/infiltration stage, despite an effort to expedite the process by adding ice packs to the tubing. This is one of the things I love about the Summers-Knoll way of learning: it's all right to fail. It can be very instructive! After our water cycle didn't work the way the kids planned, they took some time to write in their theme notebooks about what went wrong, what went right, and how they thought they could improve the system. Perhaps we'll try again, sometime, with a few modifications!

Spelling Bees and Balderdash

As you may be aware, our class has a spelling bee every morning of the week, every other week. The children are sometimes in teams, while other weeks each child attempts the words individually. I announce each word; the words are spelled out on the blackboard; and I award points to everyone who spells the word correctly.

Some weeks, the spelling bee has been structured around words that are unfamiliar to the children, but are spelled precisely the way they sound. Other weeks, there have been particular patterns or roots the children have to identify to improve their chances of success in their spelling. Since this is water month, last week's bee was based on the prefixes "hydro-" and "di-" (the better to understand "dihydrogen monoxide"). Here are some of the words that everyone got right last week:

hydrography

hydroelectric

dimorphic

hydrophobic

Pretty impressive!

As this is not a spelling bee week, we used the interval between 8:45 and 9:00 to play a round of Balderdash, which we haven't played for a while. Mike found our word in the dictionary: "sullage." Here are the possible definitions:

—an old type of sewer that made the waste go into rivers and/or lakes, producing unclean water

—the remains of metal after it is scraped up and thrown away

—a silt deposit in water or river or stream

—the kind of sulphur that infiltrates sewage

—a form of sewage that is filled with litter and waste

—to sull someone

—the spoiling or ruination, "sullying," of a reputation

Three Cups of Tea, and Pennies for Peace

Before spring break, our class began a new read-aloud book. It's not a children's book, and before we began it I told the kids that I thought this was a book they would enjoy, but that it might be difficult for them. We talked about it, and agreed that we would try the first chapter, and then take a vote as a class on whether we wanted to continue reading. The book is Three Cups of Tea, the true story of Greg Mortenson's efforts to build schools in the farthest reaches of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and at the end of the first chapter, the children voted strongly to continue reading. It's an inspiring and exciting story (but if you've read it, please don't tell the kids what's going to happen!). If you haven't read it, I recommend it highly. The young Balti students with whom Greg Mortenson began his work provide a challenging example for anyone to live up to: before their schools were built, many of them conducted classes on their own, on the four days a week when they had no teacher.

Our reading is connected to a whole-school project: Summers-Knoll is joining the Pennies for Peace program. Over the next couple of months, there will be jars set out in each classroom, collecting pennies to contribute to the education of children in central Asia. The program accepts only pennies—no quarters, dimes or nickels—and everyone is encouraged to bring in whatever they can contribute. I've been saving up my pennies for this! The jars will be set out after the whole school meets to talk about the program today, and everyone can start bringing in pennies next week. This is a wonderful way for the Summers-Knoll kids to connect their love of learning to a broader understanding of the different situations of other children's lives.

Festifools parade!

Oh, the parade on Sunday was splendid! So many interesting puppets to see, and rhythms to hear! The Summers-Knoll kids did a great job of keeping those puppets in the air!

The first arrivals...

Preparing to march...

Taking over Main Street!

And the weary but satisfied aftermath...